Using the literature of psychology, consumer behavior, and behavioral finance, a series of hypotheses is presented that account for consumer choices of managed over index mutual funds. Results indicate a need for consumer education to increase awareness of the benefits of index investing. (SK)

Extension education can help farmers and consumers enjoy benefits of farmers' markets by helping farmers learn about marketing, assisting communities with site selection, encouraging use of Women Infants Children Farmers' Market Nutrition Program coupons, and teaching consumers about food use and preservation. (SK)

Factors driving the trend toward customer-focused electronic learning (CFEL) include the increased sophistication of products and services, the need to reduce the customer training burden, and the need to bolster revenues. CFEL can shift training from a support role to a marketing tool and a profit center. (JOW)

The study of personal finance, including money management, income and spending, saving and investing, and the use of credit, has never found a home in schools. Business educators who teach how to manage the world of work should also teach how to manage the money earned there. (JOW)

A survey asked 323 teenagers what they want to know about financial management. Most indicated that using money to buy things they need made money important to them. Their responses differed from what 67 adults surveyed thought they needed to know. (JOW)

Women who were familiar (n=97) and unfamiliar (n=91) with nutrition labels were studied. All could locate label data; those who were unfamiliar were significantly less able to interpret the information. Both groups were similar in their assessment of the information's accuracy. (Contains 43 references.) (Author/JOW)

Counterfeiting is a serious problem facing several industries, including the medical, agricultural, and apparel industries (Bloch, Bush, & Campbell, 1993). The authors investigated whether ethical viewpoints affect perceptions of the morality of particular shopping behaviors, attitudes toward counterfeit products, and intentions to purchase such…

The field of adult education exists within a context of consumer capitalism, although adult educators have failed to acknowledge how central consumption is to today's society. Traditional consumer education has typically focused on technical skills, and thus positions itself outside the social, political, and cultural realms. In this article, the…

Higher education administrators know it is more cost-effective to keep students than to recruit them. Understanding financial literacy--and how it impacts student retention and persistence on the campuses--is an important concept for administrators to comprehend. Most students are not financially literate when they enter the world of higher…

Over a decade ago, Oduran (1993) argued that consumer education was an emerging frontier of adult education. While the Adult Performance Level (APL) project in the 1970s sparked some interest in consumer and life skills within adult basic education and English as a second language (Lankshear, 1993; Levine, 1986; Sandlin, 2000), and while this push…

As part of the accountability movement, schools are increasingly called upon to provide interventions that are based on sound scientific research and that provide measurable outcomes for children. Brain Gym[R] is a popular commercial program claiming that adherence to its regimen will result in more efficient learning in an almost miraculous…

Strategic planning is an important tool, but the sole dependence on it across departments and campuses has resulted in the underutilization of equally important methods of analysis. The evolution of higher and postsecondary education necessitates a systemic industry analysis, as the combination of new providers and delivery mechanisms and changing…

In the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, there exists a deficit of compelling financial education curricula in urban schools that serve financially vulnerable working-class students. Part of a design-based research investigation aimed at creating culturally-relevant financial literacy learning environments, this study…

In this article, the authors describe a classroom exercise in which students from the United States negotiated with students from Australia, using only e-mail as the communicating medium. The authors discuss the results of those negotiations and lessons learned by students and instructors using a medium with modest information richness in a…

Providing a basic overview of issues related to advertising and the consumer, this digest discusses the omnipresence of advertisements, suggesting ways for consumers to recognize advertising appeals. Deceptive advertising is discussed, with particular attention paid to financial advertising. (RS)